PT 6: Judgment
Title: The Ones to Blame
Story Type: Project Tarot Original
Wordcount: 1126
Summary: The most important of all freedoms, is the freedom to accept the consequences.
Notes: You know how in the beginning of monster movies, there's some clueless person or people who stumble across this ancient artifact and end up accidentally triggering the end of the world, only to die seconds later? Yeah, what happens to those guys?
"I say we trust her."
"What?" I rounded on Daniel, my hands balled into fists. "Are you insane?"
Daniel shrugged. "Well, I don't see that we have much of a choice. And look at her," he gestured to the ethereal looking blond lady standing far too close to us. "She's a friggin' Angel."
I cocked an eyebrow. "She has wings and a robe, that does not make her an angel. That makes her a fan of Renaissance painters."
"Maybe she's here to help us." Daniel suggested. "Maybe we can atone."
"Atone." I blinked at him. "Are you serious? We raised an unholy monstrosity from the depths of creation, a monstrosity that KILLED US, and then went on to wreak untold havoc on the world at large, and you think we can just say SORRY for that?"
"We can earn forgiveness. We aren't evil, Jake. We never wanted to hurt anyone."
"We. Fucked. Up. The planet!" I told him. "We're lucky we're not burning in some acid pit right now. This," I gestured to the featureless wasteland stretching around us. "This is our forgiveness."
"We can at least listen to her."
"And what? Listen to every shit thing we've done in chronological order? Sit here and have her read off a list of the deaths we've cause, starting with ours?"
"It'd be a change." Daniel suggested. "Something different. When did you lose track of how long we've been here?"
I sighed. "Soon as we got here, really."
"Then let's hear what she has to say. What more could happen to us?"
"Acid pit?" I offered.
Daniel rolled his eyes and stepped toward the wing lady. She stared at us both with calm eyes that never blinked. Her wings were a dusty off-white, and they stood out from her back, perfectly still. There's no wind in Limbo.
"Why are you here?" Daniel asked.
SEEK THOU REDEMPTION? She boomed at us, her not-voice filling the space inside our heads without touching the air between her and us.
"We seek forgiveness."
FORGIVENESS. She repeated, and if there were any actual tone to her voice she probably would have sounded amused. FORGIVENESS FROM WHOM?
Oh great. A grammar-snob with a halo.
FROM GOD?
I winced. I'd been a life-long agnostic and the whole purgatory thing we had going on here was throwing a wrench in my wishy-washy approach to religion.
"From ourselves." Daniel replied. "We know what we caused. Whether we meant to do it or not, everything that happened, it's on us. We just want a chance to redeem ourselves. To prove we--we're not monsters."
The angel lady smiled. It was freaky.
AND THOSE WHO DIED FOR YOUR ACTIONS? THOSE LIVES CUT SHORT BY YOUR FOOLISHNESS?
"Yes." I said. "Yes, them. All of them. We--it's our fault. Just...let us own up. They deserve to know why."
The air around us rippled, and where the angel had been standing there was a crowd, hundreds upon hundreds of people. Old, young, men, women, everything in between. A flesh-rainbow of skin and hair, a patchwork quilt of various styles of cloathing. They stared at us. Some of them glared. Some of them cried. None of them made a sound.
I gulped. Daniel stepped closer to me and wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me close and shielding me as much as he could with his body.
"It was us." I said. "We never meant to do it."
"It was so stupid." Daniel added. "We were looking for stuff in the sand. We had this metal detector. We were bored."
"It was just a box." I tried to explain. "Just a stupid, boring looking box. We just wanted to look inside. We didn't know. I swear to God, we didn't know." I was crying now. They just looked at me, none of them blinked. They stared at us.
"We swear, we didn't know." Daniel pressed. The souls were unmoved. "But we are the ones who opened it. We did it." He looked at me, pulled me closer, until my face was buried in his chest. "We're to blame for your deaths. All of you."
"We're sorry." I whispered. Daniel's shirt was getting soaked from my tears and snot.
"It's our fault."
There was a soft sound, like a wordless whisper, that ran through the crowd. The air around us moved as hundreds of feet stepped forward. I waited for whatever the souls were going to do to us. I clung to the fabric of Daniel's shirt and felt him shaking against me, felt his tears dampen my hair.
The crowd closed around us, then it closed over us. The souls began to inhabit the same physical space we did. Time and again, over and over, we felt their final moments, that last flash of terror, the seering pain, the disbelief, the fury, the resignation. We screamed and screamed, and since we had no physical bodies, our vocal cords never gave out, and we kept screaming. Daniel held me through it all, through the agony and the hatred and the terror, through that expanded eternity as ghost after ghost haunted us as painfully as it could.
The children were the worst, and the easiest. They didn't hate us. They just wanted to understand why. Thousands of voices begged us for an explanation, thousands of faces fell when we couldn't offer one. They cried, and we cried with them. They were so scared.
I don't know how long it went on. How long Daniel and I stood there and accepted the consequences of our actions. I grew to hate him, and him to hate me, and still we held each other, even as we faced the darkest part of ourselves, laid ourselves bare to each other. We peaked that summit of loathing, and fell again into our mutual need. At some point, Daniel kissed me, or maybe I kissed him, but that one extra bit of physical contact was like a focal point, keeping us grounded on each other as the souls continued their sentence.
When it ended at last, when the final soul stepped outside of our bodies and vanished from the endless emptiness of purgatory, Daniel and I collapsed to our knees, then fell to the ground, exhausted.
AND NOW? The angel was back. We blinked up at her, confused and dead. ARE YOU FORGIVEN?
I shook my head. So did Daniel.
THEN WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED? She asked us.
"A place to start." Said Daniel.
I nodded, then my head fell back onto the dusty ground, and I blacked out.
When I woke, it was to the sensation of rain on my face, and Daniel's hand in mine.
Story Type: Project Tarot Original
Wordcount: 1126
Summary: The most important of all freedoms, is the freedom to accept the consequences.
Notes: You know how in the beginning of monster movies, there's some clueless person or people who stumble across this ancient artifact and end up accidentally triggering the end of the world, only to die seconds later? Yeah, what happens to those guys?
"I say we trust her."
"What?" I rounded on Daniel, my hands balled into fists. "Are you insane?"
Daniel shrugged. "Well, I don't see that we have much of a choice. And look at her," he gestured to the ethereal looking blond lady standing far too close to us. "She's a friggin' Angel."
I cocked an eyebrow. "She has wings and a robe, that does not make her an angel. That makes her a fan of Renaissance painters."
"Maybe she's here to help us." Daniel suggested. "Maybe we can atone."
"Atone." I blinked at him. "Are you serious? We raised an unholy monstrosity from the depths of creation, a monstrosity that KILLED US, and then went on to wreak untold havoc on the world at large, and you think we can just say SORRY for that?"
"We can earn forgiveness. We aren't evil, Jake. We never wanted to hurt anyone."
"We. Fucked. Up. The planet!" I told him. "We're lucky we're not burning in some acid pit right now. This," I gestured to the featureless wasteland stretching around us. "This is our forgiveness."
"We can at least listen to her."
"And what? Listen to every shit thing we've done in chronological order? Sit here and have her read off a list of the deaths we've cause, starting with ours?"
"It'd be a change." Daniel suggested. "Something different. When did you lose track of how long we've been here?"
I sighed. "Soon as we got here, really."
"Then let's hear what she has to say. What more could happen to us?"
"Acid pit?" I offered.
Daniel rolled his eyes and stepped toward the wing lady. She stared at us both with calm eyes that never blinked. Her wings were a dusty off-white, and they stood out from her back, perfectly still. There's no wind in Limbo.
"Why are you here?" Daniel asked.
SEEK THOU REDEMPTION? She boomed at us, her not-voice filling the space inside our heads without touching the air between her and us.
"We seek forgiveness."
FORGIVENESS. She repeated, and if there were any actual tone to her voice she probably would have sounded amused. FORGIVENESS FROM WHOM?
Oh great. A grammar-snob with a halo.
FROM GOD?
I winced. I'd been a life-long agnostic and the whole purgatory thing we had going on here was throwing a wrench in my wishy-washy approach to religion.
"From ourselves." Daniel replied. "We know what we caused. Whether we meant to do it or not, everything that happened, it's on us. We just want a chance to redeem ourselves. To prove we--we're not monsters."
The angel lady smiled. It was freaky.
AND THOSE WHO DIED FOR YOUR ACTIONS? THOSE LIVES CUT SHORT BY YOUR FOOLISHNESS?
"Yes." I said. "Yes, them. All of them. We--it's our fault. Just...let us own up. They deserve to know why."
The air around us rippled, and where the angel had been standing there was a crowd, hundreds upon hundreds of people. Old, young, men, women, everything in between. A flesh-rainbow of skin and hair, a patchwork quilt of various styles of cloathing. They stared at us. Some of them glared. Some of them cried. None of them made a sound.
I gulped. Daniel stepped closer to me and wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me close and shielding me as much as he could with his body.
"It was us." I said. "We never meant to do it."
"It was so stupid." Daniel added. "We were looking for stuff in the sand. We had this metal detector. We were bored."
"It was just a box." I tried to explain. "Just a stupid, boring looking box. We just wanted to look inside. We didn't know. I swear to God, we didn't know." I was crying now. They just looked at me, none of them blinked. They stared at us.
"We swear, we didn't know." Daniel pressed. The souls were unmoved. "But we are the ones who opened it. We did it." He looked at me, pulled me closer, until my face was buried in his chest. "We're to blame for your deaths. All of you."
"We're sorry." I whispered. Daniel's shirt was getting soaked from my tears and snot.
"It's our fault."
There was a soft sound, like a wordless whisper, that ran through the crowd. The air around us moved as hundreds of feet stepped forward. I waited for whatever the souls were going to do to us. I clung to the fabric of Daniel's shirt and felt him shaking against me, felt his tears dampen my hair.
The crowd closed around us, then it closed over us. The souls began to inhabit the same physical space we did. Time and again, over and over, we felt their final moments, that last flash of terror, the seering pain, the disbelief, the fury, the resignation. We screamed and screamed, and since we had no physical bodies, our vocal cords never gave out, and we kept screaming. Daniel held me through it all, through the agony and the hatred and the terror, through that expanded eternity as ghost after ghost haunted us as painfully as it could.
The children were the worst, and the easiest. They didn't hate us. They just wanted to understand why. Thousands of voices begged us for an explanation, thousands of faces fell when we couldn't offer one. They cried, and we cried with them. They were so scared.
I don't know how long it went on. How long Daniel and I stood there and accepted the consequences of our actions. I grew to hate him, and him to hate me, and still we held each other, even as we faced the darkest part of ourselves, laid ourselves bare to each other. We peaked that summit of loathing, and fell again into our mutual need. At some point, Daniel kissed me, or maybe I kissed him, but that one extra bit of physical contact was like a focal point, keeping us grounded on each other as the souls continued their sentence.
When it ended at last, when the final soul stepped outside of our bodies and vanished from the endless emptiness of purgatory, Daniel and I collapsed to our knees, then fell to the ground, exhausted.
AND NOW? The angel was back. We blinked up at her, confused and dead. ARE YOU FORGIVEN?
I shook my head. So did Daniel.
THEN WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED? She asked us.
"A place to start." Said Daniel.
I nodded, then my head fell back onto the dusty ground, and I blacked out.
When I woke, it was to the sensation of rain on my face, and Daniel's hand in mine.